Always
by radiance x
Summary: Being with you had me feeling so much safer. JT&Emma.


**Always**

**A/N: **Another one-shot? Yes, I think so...

You were always there for me, no matter what. You'd spend the lazy summer afternoons at my place, and we'd waste away the day lying on the grass on and talking about what the future had in store for us. You would always welcome me with open arms, especially when times got tough for my family. Sometimes, when I started to choke up and bawl my eyes out, you'd lie on my bed with me and hold me until I had no more tears left to shed. I think I even made you spend the night once because I didn't want to be alone. And being with you had me feeling so much safer.

Most people misunderstood you, but I knew who you really were. After all, you do learn a lot about a person after knowing them for so many years. You loved to joke around, and you especially liked an audience. But I knew the serious side of you, the side that was just as scared and terrified of life as the rest of us. You never liked to admit that, though. But I always knew, and I think that bothered you a bit; that we could read each other like our favorite books.

You made me feel so fun and so carefree. Two feelings I hadn't felt in...well, almost forever. You always tried to make me smile, and you always succeeded. I came to you with my problems first, and not Manny, who had been my best friend at the time. You were so much easier to talk to.

I'll admit, it did take me a while to come around to you. I thought of you as just an immature prankster with no goals in life.

How very wrong I was.

I learned so much about you over the past year or so, and I cherished every moment we spent together. You always had comforting words of advice to give me, especially when I freaked out over the latest object of my affections. You never judged me, told me I was stupid, or look down upon me. You never told me my save-the-environment protests were stupid, instead you supported me and said that people would be idiots to not listen to what I had to say, you never lectured me or said I-told-you-so when I ended things with Sean for the fifteen hundredth time.

Even though we spent so much of our time together, things always, **always **stayed strictly platonic. And sometimes I wondered. I wondered what it'd be like to have that something extra. With you.

But, no, you didn't go for girls like me. You didn't even go for girls like the old Manny.

No, you went for girls like the **new **Manny. In the beginning, I thought the idea of you two together was somewhat exciting. After all, I was with Sean and I thought it'd be nice for you to be in a relationship as well. And then Manny destroyed our friendship. She seemed to have destroyed all chances between you both also.

I had never hated her as much as I did in that time. I hated her for throwing away our friendship, for upsetting you. I realized then that you never deserved her. You need to be loved, appreciated and cared for. And that was something Manny was not ready to commit to.

The ground was shaky between all three of us after Manny changed. You still chased after her though. You insisted she was your dream woman. And then Sean and I broke up and she got involved with Craig.

We found our way back to each other again.

After Manny got pregnant and had abortion, and was now branded the school slut, you couldn't help but feel sorry for her. You wanted to help her. I never understood why, as I always thought she had brought it on herself. But I tried to support you as you had supported me so many times before.

And much to my dismay, you two seemed to click. You both went to the end of the year dance together, and I went with Chris. You were having the time of your life, while Manny...well, she seemed to want to be somewhere else. That didn't stop you though.

I saw you both kissing in the hallway our first day back to school as grade tens. I hadn't heard from you that much over the summer...you were always out with her.

Manny told me one day in the washroom that there wasn't much going on between you two and that she was just messing around, testing the waters. I let her know how much you cared about her, but that didn't seem to faze her.

"You can't just play with people like that, Manny," I said warningly.

She glared at me and replied bitterly, "What do you know about guys, anyway, Emma?"

And with that she flounced out of the washroom, and she didn't speak to me much after that. I tried to tell you about this, but I think you pretended you didn't hear me. I told you to be careful, but you waved me off.

"If Manny really didn't like me, why would she be with me now?" you asked.

I didn't know what to say.

Then one afternoon I saw Manny in the front of the school building, flirting with Craig. She was holding his hand lightly and he was grinning like mad. It killed me, because I knew you'd be absolutely crushed. After all, you had always claimed that you were in love with her.

I confronted her later that day and she demanded that I stay out of her business.

"I think it is my business now. What will JT say when he find out?" I said.

Her body froze. "You wouldn't."

I smirked and replied, "Guess you don't know as much about me as you thought."

And this time I was the one who left her.

JT didn't believe me when I told him. He said I was over dramatizing the situation and that Manny and Craig had a rocky past, so it was only natural that Craig wanted to check up on her.

Bull.

We kind of drifted away from each other after that. We didn't exchange anymore hugs, we didn't talk on the phone till two in the morning anymore, and you never came home with me after school. We talked on occasion in the hallway, but that was it.

When I left my last class of the day a couple days ago, I saw you and Manny with your hands entwined together. She had a goofy grin splashed across her face, and you looked like you were in heaven being with her. You looked at me for a second, then reached over and kissed Manny on the cheek.

I knew in that one, single moment, I had lost you.

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**A/N: **Ooh, Manny is evil. I know it's kind of an overused plot, but I really had to write this. Enjoy.


End file.
